Harry,
Thanks for the very hearty "LOL"s you gave me with this message. I learn so much from this club! Your dishwasher repair experience very closely parallels many of my recent handyman experiences. It is easier to learn the lessons when reading someone else's account. I learned:
1. Call the repairman first
2. If ignoring "1", blame the outcome on the terse and incomplete instructions, and Crazy Joe the electrician.
Thanks again!
Bob in San Antonio
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On Jan 3, 2008, at 12:42 PM, vpFREE@yahoogroups.com wrote:
You realize that this is borne out by a frustration with the
inevitable terseness and vagueness of most printed instructions.------
Last week I took it upon myself to attempt a repair of our dishwasher.
Over the years we've twice had a repairman out for it when it has
similarly just shut down. In both cases they spent 10 minutes
replacing a $6 thermal fuse that is in a faulty compartment that leaks
steam from the dishwasher. Having watched, I figured I could tackle
this on my own.Between extraordinarily abbreviated instructions that came with the
fuse and a disorienting diagram of the door innards pulled from the
internet, I found myself fiddling with the bastard for over 3 hours --
1/2 installing the fuse and 1/2 trying to get the blasted door put
back together!With growing volume I vented frustration - drawing on some of the
choicer, and more obscure, words in my vocabulary. I've little doubt
that there's a little bleed through via the common wall of our row
house judging from the very infrequent but intense glares I've drawn
from the next door neighbors on rare occasion subsequent to one of my
tirades.Tackling this as an early morning 5a job, I ultimately had to pull Bev
out of bed to supervise, just to give me a sanity check. (The b/r is
on the 3rd floor,in case you have doubts that she was still asleep.)Among the frustrations that morning is the fact that I couldn't seem
to find the appropriate circuit breaker to shut power off to the
machine (I found all 3 other breakers which separately are wired to
the kitchen lights, appliances, and garbage disposal/outlets ... I've
come to refer to the electrician who rewired the house when it was
re-habbed just prior to our purchase 18 years ago as "Crazy Joe" --
our doorbell is on a line all by itself.)Whether I couldn't find the appropriate breaker, or just didn't manage
to discharge residual power from the machine, when I leapt back from
the dishwasher for the 2nd time within a 3 minute span because I
jolted myself while pressing down on a wire connector to make sure it
was tight and touched a live contact, I sent Bev sprawling onto the
floor in paroxysms of laughter -- during which she mockingly and
repeatedly stabbed her finger into the air (<poke> "Ow!!" <poke>
"Ow!! <poke> ...)Now reassembled, the dishwasher is still dead in the water. A service
rep is due shortly.- Harry